Rabbi Shlomo of Carlin was known throughout all of the Chassidic world as being one of the foremost pupils of the Maggid of Mezeritz, the successor of the Baal Shem Tov. In fact he was nicknamed The Rabbi Shlomo the Great because of his holiness, expertise in all branches of the Torah and great miracles that he performed.

He had pupils and followers scattered all over the Ukraine and White Russia and would travel around to visit them regularly.

It so happened that one year he visited pupils that lived in a predominantly anti-Chassidic (mitnagdim) town in White Russia but he paid no attention to the opposition. He was too devoted to serving the Creator with every fiber of his being every moment of the day .

There were many things that the Chassidim did that infuriated their

opposition and two of them were that the men would go to the mikva

(sometimes every morning) and they would heat up the mikva before immersion; things the mitnagdim thought were insane and even forbidden.

[A mikva is like a small 'swimming' pool built exactly according to Torah standards, big enough to immerse at least one's body. Immersion in a mikva removes certain types of impurity. The water is either all rain water, or a certain percentage rain water]

But, as we said, this opposition did not bother Rabbi Shomo at all. In fact he requested from some of the young men to heat up the town mikva so he could immerse himself before prayer and the water was very cold.

The men somehow found a way to get into the mikva building when no one was there and even managed to heat up a huge pot of water to boiling. The mikva itself happened to be empty (or they emptied it) and their plan was to pour the boiling water into the empty mikva and then to quickly fill it with regular water so it would be warm for Rabbi Shlomo.

But somehow things got a bit disorganized and when they finally managed to lift the heavy boiling pot to the edge of the wall surrounding the mikva and pour it into the mikva, they didn't notice that one of their company was down there in the empty mikva checking on something or other completely unaware of what was going on above him.

The results were a catastrophe. The Chassid never knew what hit him. In just seconds he was completely and instantly scalded from head to foot. He let out blood-curdling screams for about thirty seconds and then passed out from the pain.

The Chassidim were shocked to the essence of their souls. Their poor friend was dying a horrible painful death before their very eyes. Their only chance was to take him to the Rebbe as quickly as possible. They wrapped him in their coats and ran with him through the cold winter streets until they saw in the distance the house where the Rebbe was staying.

As they were running they also began to remember that they themselves were also in severe trouble. If it were known that they were Chassidim of Reb Shlomo and that their connection to him was any more than casual it could be physically dangerous for them and their entire families. There were

instances of Chassidim being beaten and even killed by zealous mitnagdim.

They made it to the Rebbe's house They brought their burnt friend in and laid him on the table. By this time he was much more dead than alive and, to make things worse when they removed the coats they had wrapped him in much of the poor fellow's skin peeled off. It was obvious that the end was only seconds away.

Rabbi Shlomo, however, did not seem overly concerned. He simply began slowly passing his hand over the fellow's body and wherever his hand passed the skin miraculously healed!! The burnt Chassid began to breathe more steadily and easily until after about fifteen minutes of this his skin was whole and rosy as though nothing ever happened.

The others could not believe what they were seeing; their friend put on his clothes, thanked the Rebbe profusely for saving his life and left.

It was an open miracle and they all saw it with their naked eyes.

One year later Reb Shlomo again returned to the same town and again the same young men came to meet him, led by the Chassid that he had brought back to life. But the Rebbe could tell that something had changed, their entire attitude was different. He asked what it was and they told him.

"A few months after you did that amazing miracle and actually raised the dead, well, another Rebbe came here. His name was Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Laidi. We know he is your friend and you respect him as well, and his respect and reverence for you is immeasurable.

"But he said two or three discourses in Chassidut and we heard things that we never thought a human being could say. He spoke about the upper worlds and we felt we were in the upper worlds. He spoke about how the upper worlds were really nothing compared to the Creator and we felt that too. But when he talked about Moshiach and we felt Moshiach was here we decided to follow him.

Rebbe, you showed us the miracles G-d does; you can even enliven the dead! But Rebbe Shneur Zalman shows us what WE should do for G-d; he enlivened our souls.

This answers our questions. The Jews didn't sing when the sea split because they were used to G-d doing miracles for them. What they needed was someone to teach them to return the favors. ... Like the difference between the two Rabbis in our story.

That is why it says "Moses AND the Jewish people" because without Moses the Jews would not have known how to sing to G-d. Moses enlivened their souls.

That is also why it says "This song to G-d" because it was the first time that the Jews repaid G-d; returned energy and gave something TO Him.

And this explains why it says "Will Sing" as Rashi explains there that this proves that there will be the raising of the dead; Moses and all the Jews will again sing.

And the reason why we will SING is because the resurrection of the bodies will come as a result of the physical service we did with our BODIES in this world.

And that is the essence of the idea of a SONG - namely raising physical energy back up to the Creator. It is precisely this return of energy we

'raise up' to G-d that will cause the Raising of the Dead.

That is why the Chassidim in our story favored Rabbi Shneur Zalman's

discourse over Rabbi Shlomo's miracles.

They sensed that it was a preparation for Moshiach.

Moshiach is the goal of Judaism. He will bring all the Jews, indeed all mankind, to serve Hashem (see the end of Rambam 11:4). And Rabbi Shneur Zalman was the Moshiach of his generation! (in fact the Lubavitcher Rebbe pointed out that each of the Chabad Rebbes was the Moshiach of his

generation).

And just as G-d did great miracles in the Exodus from Egypt so will He do even bigger ones in the future redemption. (Micah 7:15) as a result of us doing all we can NOW in this physical world to bring....